As Silly Season 2007-2008 begins, many of project:BDR’s car’s will be going through varying levels of transformation.

One was really boring – John putting his stock struts back on for the winter. After ruining a set of JIC’s in one salty winter (dust boots? who needs dust boots?) John no longer lets the shiny suspensions see winter. This goes with his new policy of not shipping any suspension components to California for rebuilds.

The other was slightly more interesting. A long time ago in a bar far far away, Jake was in no position to drive. A friend of his made a bold claim about being able to drive stick. The veracity of this claim came into question when smoke started erupting from the general area of the clutch. While Jake continued to autocross the car with decent success, the clock was ticking.

After a couple years worth of scheduling issues, the time for a new clutch had arrived. A Toyota-only caravan left from Alexandria, headed for Meislava HQ. Jake’s car started out strong, but before long resorted to coasting downhill and generally accelerating VERY slowly. After dozens of puffy black smoke clouds, the hazards were deployed and Jake took it onto the shoulder.

AAA: What’s the nature of the problem?

John: Uh, the clutch is pretty much gone.

AAA: Where will you be taking the vehicle?

John: [Slavamei's address]

AAA: The towing destination needs to be a business or a place of repair.

John: Yeah. It is. (Whatever.)

Plenty of stuff has to be removed to get at the clutch on a Celica. As the clutch got closer, debris started falling out of the undertrays.

After Jake, John and Prinya had finished feeding Slava grapes, the clutch was finally exposed.

The most common question was “Isn’t there supposed to be friction material there?”

Fortunately, the factory replacement clutch comes with explicit instructions to make sure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again. Japanese companies have a great way of anthropomorphizing inanimate car parts.

Jake’s car now has good odds of being autocrossable again in 2008. Welcome back, Jake!

Huge thanks to Slava and Mei for hosting and wrenching. To quote Jake:

The man is unassuming, a slight smile on his face constantly. One of those smiles that could just mean internal happiness or perhaps just the perpetual hope for affection. The man attached to the smile is a man of prowess and guile. After long days of saving kitties from trees and saving old ladies from purse-snatchers, this hero took a moment (a rather large moment) of his busy weekend, to help a fallen friend. This man is Slava B, the name, the man, the legend. After dealing with many delays and even a late hitch of a break down on the way to the operation, Slava took a stand for all that is right and just in the world and helped a friend in need by pretty much single-handedly installing Jake’s devastated clutch. Slava showed no fear, even in the face of adversity and annoying bolts. Many hours of sweat and tears were spent to complete this resurrection and a resurrection it was!